“Which one?”
“You have more than one? Vekk, this will not do, female. You are to birth my younglings. I need a strong female.”
“Cl-clearly you got cheated. R-return me and get what you need. Or l-let me leave. I’ll find my way home on my own.”
“You’d return to a people who do not want you?” I understand this female less and less the more I get to know her. But I cannot return her, even if I wanted to. Her people saw no value in her. They may turn her away into the dangers of Kovos or sell her again. I cannot allow that. Even the weakest member of a species deserves to live. Sojek will never be a warrior, but he has many good qualities. I cannot list them out as I do not know them, but he has them. Ossa tells me this nearly weekly.
“I don’t want you touching me. Not… not until…” My female takes a deep breath, then shudders. “I’m not ready, Atox. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready,” she adds, her voice barely audible.
Frustration mounts within me, and I’m not sure what to do. “You do not have permission to use my name, female,” I lash out at her.
“And you don’t have permission to touch me.”
“I don’t need permission. You are my mate.” In two strides, I reach the bed in complete silence. An orc doesn’t need much light, but even I cannot see right now. I can scent her, rather well, enough to determine she moved away from the edge where I placed her.
My hand shoots out, snags her ankle, and I yank her to the edge of the bed.
“Don’t!” she yells and kicks, catching me in the shoulder.
My cock hardens at her fire. “Fight me, female. It will change nothing. You are mine and I will never let you return to the humans.”
With that, I run my hands along her legs. I’ve never touched anything so soft, except the lodi petals that grew on the vinesoutside my home on Orcos. I’ll never run my fingers along those flowers again, but this flower before me, the one who defies me at every turn, will become my sanctuary.
“Please, don’t,” she cries out, her voice shaking. From the dark or from my touch, I’m unsure, but her words stop me. I’ve never had a female who refused my touch. Taking a female against her will is easily done, but against our laws and the mark of a weak male, which I am not.
“There is that word again, the one that shows respect,” I say, giving myself a moment to plan my course.
“Yes,” she says, her voice still wavering. Then she clears her throat, and with more strength, adds, “I respect you, Atox. Please don’t touch me.”
“If you respect me, you will not deny me.” I’m losing patience with her, even as I release my hold on her and rise. She scurries as far from the edge as she can get, taking her sweet scent with her, denying me more than her flesh.
I pace my chamber, not sure what to do about her.
“If you respect me, you won’t force me,” she adds, the clever vegga.
Respect her? I nearly laugh. How can anyone respect a human… a humanfemaleat that? And yet the very fact that she demands respect intrigues me. She is quite different from orc females. Ossa never demands respect. She takes it, like the daughter of any grak would. This female though does not take what is not hers, and yet she expects to be given it. Absurd.
“You will deny me my release?”
A grak relies on respect or he has no real power. Warriors sacrifice their lives on my orders because they respect me. That is the loyalty I want from this female, yet she demands the same.
“Find your release with someone who wants it. Someone who will respect you for it.”
Her challenge hardens me further and yet something about her reminds me of my younger days when I trained gorjas. Therewas a time to ease back on training, so one did not break the gorja’s spirit. Perhaps mating a human requires a similar approach.
“I do not need to respect you,” I remind her.
“No, you don’t. But I will hate you with everything I have if you force me. I’ll never stop hating you. And I’ll never give you any younglings. I promise that. Wouldn’t you rather have a woman who cooperates? Let me leave. Tell my people I died from eating something poisonous. Ask them for another woman, one who wants to be here. And when you enter New Earth, make sure you’re clean and smell good. Show them who you really are, Atox. A male who cares about his people. Find a woman who wants a male who tells her what to do. Because that’s not me,. I want a male who will respect me and give me reason to respect him. I want a partner, not an owner. I’ll never be the submissive woman you want.”
“A mate is meant to soothe, comfort, be an ally when all others turn against a male. A mate should accept a male even when he fails.”
The idea of having a submissive female no longer appeals to me. I want this female, with all her fire and obstinance. She has heart and passion, and vek me, but I want a mate who challenges me, who cares enough to stand up to me. Like a neld, the second to a grak, only one who shares my furs and won’t condemn me for my weaknesses. A true mate.
I take a deep breath, pulling her scent into my lungs. It has changed, no longer tainted with fear, only determination.
“Your ways are different, Paloma.”
“You called me by my name.” Surprise fills her voice.
